Angie Nwandu of The Shaderoom gets hammered as Facebook pulls down page for alleged copyright violations

Popular Instagram blog The Shaderoom lost its 4 million Facebook followers in one fell swoop on Monday.

Facebook pulled down the influential social media gossip blog for “intellectual property” violations. In other words, TSR was banned for publishing copyrighted paparazzi photos.

The Shade Room’s 25-year-old founder, Nigerian Angie Nwandu — who made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Media list this year — told a journaliston Monday that she doesn’t know why Facebook took the page down.

She doesn’t believe the action was spurred by one particular post: “I monitor the page frequently and nothing was posted that violated any rules to my knowledge,” she wrote in a DM. “We have been targeted on FB and have been receiving numerous reports over things that don’t violate the terms. The amount of reports have been excessive.”

Facebook confirmed that it took the page down “for IP violations” but didn’t say what those violations were.

The takedown of such a large and popular page could add fuel to concerns that publishers are giving Facebook too much power. (Note, though, that The Shade Room does have its own standalone website and isn’t an Instant Articles publisher. It used its Facebook page to link to its Instagram posts and stories on its website.)

Other bloggers speculated that Nwandu may have been hit with copyright infringement notices for the many celebrity photographs she publishes that helped make her Instagram blog popular.

The Shaderoom launched on Instagram and Twitter simultaneously, although it failed to gain in popularity on Twitter until recently when Nwandu was named one of Time‘s influential bloggers.

Popular Instagram blogs such as TSR and Baller Alert charge advertisers $$$ for running ads in their IG posts. It can be a lucrative business, especially when you consider IG bloggers use Instagram’s free bandwidth instead of paying for their own bandwidth like bloggers who run their own blogs.
But the hammer is about to drop.

Most people who register on Instagram don’t read the TOS (Terms of Service).

Instagram’s TOS clearly states: “You agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of Content you post on or through the Instagram Services.”

This means if you are sued for copyright violations on Instagram, you agree to pay Instagram’s lawyers for any damages owed.

For now, it looks like The Shaderoom is safe on Instagram, where her many “roommates” are willing to accept the blame for posting copyrighted celebrity photos. But there are storm clouds up ahead.